You could not wish for a more glorious location than you find at Lorraine Hinkins and Alex Yorke's 18th-century farmhouse B&B, with views to Cader Idris and Tal-y-llyn lake.

Guide readers are unswervingly loyal to this family-friendly country house by the sea, with peerless views to Snowdonia across Cardigan Bay, run by the Fletcher-Brewer family since opening in 1948.

Abounding in old-fashioned charm, this 16th-century coaching inn with woodland behind and the river across the road has an interesting selection of quirky bedrooms, an atmospheric bar and good cooking in the restaurant.

In wooded grounds on the edge of Snowdonia National Park, this neo-Jacobean Victorian mansion, which once hosted Winston Churchill (he'd have liked the whisky and cigar lounge), has lavish bedrooms and suites in high traditional style, an all-day bar menu and fine-dining restaurant.

There is nowhere in the world quite like Sir Clough Williams-Ellis's Italianate resort village, where hotel bedrooms are spread around various properties, centred on a Victorian mansion on wooded slopes above the sandy beaches of the Dwyryd estuary.

Two 16th-century buildings above Edward I's formidable castle with views of sea and Snowdonia comprise this inn with seven well-presented bedrooms, an aviation-themed bar, and a restaurant serving modern British cooking with a Thai twist.

A Victorian black-and-white building refurbished for the 21st century above a disused slate quarry and the old Llechwedd mine, this easygoing Snowdonia hotel offers a choice of smart in-house bedrooms for comfort lovers, glamping tents for hardier souls, and off-grid moorland shepherds' huts for a stay on the wild side.